Texas-based Collegiate Management Services has constructed more than 20 on-campus student housing projects across the nation during the past decade, but La Maison Du Bayou at Nicholls is on pace to become the company’s fastest project completed to date, according to the management team.
Lynn Krebs,senior vice president for Collegiate Management, and Doug Graham, vice president, visited the campus last week and assured students that the new housing project will be completed by its scheduled time in January. The contractors have completed about 55 percent of the construction, Krebs said.
“This project will probably break all of our records for speed,” Krebs said. “It was one of our challenges to really show the Nicholls community that we could finish by January. We are, in fact, almost ahead of schedule at this point.”
The contractors are currently adding bricks to most of the buildings, including the already popular clubhouse, which will feature a game room, convenience store and exercise equipment. Some of the appliances are also being added to the buildings.
Students will have the opportunity to view the clubhouse and other sections of the apartment complex before the Thanksgiving break next month. Nicholls administration will announce the exact dates in the next week or two, Graham said.
“It’s an extraordinary state-of-the-art facility,” Graham said. “It’s something students will really love once they get a chance to see it up close and touch it.”
Krebs will soon be interviewing candidates interested in applying for community assistant worker job openings at the new housing complex. Community assistant workers will have similar responsibilities to that of residence hall assistant workers in the dormitories. “There won’t be much difference except for the title,” Krebs said. “They’ll supervise their particular area.”
Coupons will be sent to every student through the Nicholls e-mail network encouraging students to consider applying to live at the apartments. Krebs and Graham will return to Nicholls this week, the week before Thanksgiving break and the weeks of the final two home football games to help recruit students. Drawing interest from commuter students has become the main objective of recruitment for the management team, hoping more students off-campus will get involved with activities at Nicholls.
“We have many ways to get the word out to students and contact them,” Graham said. “We will do our best to get students interested in this project as much as we can. This is something they don’t want to pass up on.”
More than 150 of a possible 408 students have applied to live in the new apartments during the spring semester. The apartment complex, which started construction in the summer on Nicholls-owned property, features seven three-story buildings. Students have the option to lease an apartment for a five-month period or an 18-month period.
One section of the complex will include 24 two-bedroom, two-bathroom units, which have sold out, and the other section will include 90 four-bedroom, two-bathroom units. The two-bedroom unit costs $445 per person per month, while the four-bedroom unit will cost $407 per person per month.
Students living in the apartments are required to place a $350 declining balance toward a meal plan for the semester, Krebs said. Like the residence halls, meal plans are required for every student living on campus.
Each apartment will include a furnished kitchen area, a living room, a full-sized washer and dryer, free cable, free phone, free Internet services and private parking. A swimming pool will be added near the clubhouse, as will a sand volleyball court.
With security as a principle concern, Krebs said a closed circuit camera system will monitor all outside activity, and there will be an alarm system in each apartment unit. Nicholls administration also plans to employ more university police officers whose sole job will be to monitor La Maison Du Bayou and the residence halls.
“We can’t tell you how excited we are about this project and how much we look forward to working with the students at Nicholls State University,” Krebs said. “This will be an amazing accomplishment and feat.”
For more information on La Maison Du Bayou, visit the office in the student union across from the information desk, or log on to http://www.newnichollshousing.com. To learn more about Collegiate Management Services, log on to http://www.collegiate-managment.com.